Monday, August 25, 2014

Interview with Sten from Ecocide!

This interview is with guitarist and singer Sten from the death metal group Ecocide. They hail from the Netherlands and put out a wicked debut record last year! Enjoy!

SFM: Hi guys! Let’s start by talking
about your debut full-length record, “Eye of Wicked Sight”. The album was
initially released independently. Did you receive a lot of label interest after
it was released

Sten: Yes, after the release we got a lot of
interest from labels who wanted to re-release the album on vinyl or CD. The
Vinyl was done by Supreme Chaos Records and the Re-issue on CD was done by
Disharmonic records.

SFM: When Disharmonic Records picked
up the album, there was a new cover art. The art still reflects the title but is quite a bit different. Did the label
insist on new artwork? Do you guys like the new art?

Sten: Well we came up with new artwork for the
vinyl release because we thought that the new art would look cooler on vinyl.
When Disharmonic contacted us we thought let’s use the new art and keep the old
one as a sort of 1st press artwork.

SFM: Even though there are a lot of
bands playing old-school heavy metal these days (whether traditional or thrash
or death metal), few of them nail the production like you guys did. “Eye of
Wicked Sight” sounds like it’s straight from the early 90’s. How did you
achieve this production sound? Are you guys happy with the end result?

Sten: Well we recorded with Fredde form Dirty
bird studios and also known from bands like Massive Assault and Sledgehammer
Nosejob. Fredde had done some great Dutch old school Death metal bands and we
thought that this was the right guy for us ! We think the album turned out
great !

SFM: Your lyrical approach is
different from most death metal bands that go the gore or Satan route. What
draws you to sci-fi oriented lyrics?

Sten: Well we are all interested in sci-fi
stuff and we thought why not write some lyrics about it! It’s still gory and
evil but with a different twist. I have also thought about writing some lyrics about other stuff but we will see
about that in the future!

SFM: You have done a lot of gigs in
the last couple of years. What are your favourite songs to play from the album?
What songs are the fan favourites?

Sten: I love to play Crawling From The Crypt
and Terror From Beyond because they are really fast heavy songs and the fans go
crazy on those ones. I also think Planet Eater is one of the more popular songs
amongst fans because it has this catchy , groovy tone to it and it’s also the
first song on the record.

SFM: This year in particular, you’ve
had some great support slots including opening for Gorguts and Malevolent
Creation. Are you guys trying to get on a major death metal tour, or looking to
play some summer festivals next year?

Sten: We would love to do a cool Death Metal
tour with band’s like that and we would also love to play on festivals like
Partysan, Stonehenge and Neurotic Deathfest

SFM: Are you guys working on new
material? If so, when can we expect a new Ecocide album, and will it sound
similar to the debut?

Sten: Yes we are working on new stuff only it
has been hard for me to come up with new things because I had some problems
with my personal life and I didn’t feel that well most of this year. But we are
working very hard on some new songs now and we hope to release it by the end of
this year or in the beginning of 2015. I think it will be a bit similar to
“Eye” but I think I will keep some of the
lyrics more down to earth this time haha!

SFM: Do you think that death metal
needs to continue to evolve to be interesting, or can bands simply come up with
similar sounding fans to keep fans happy?

Sten: Well I like experimental stuff and bands
can always change their sound but there is nothing wrong with some good old
school death metal. A lot of bands put different things in their music but it’s
still old school death metal and it’s still great music.

SFM: A lot of new death metal bands
really favour Incantation’s sound. You guys seem to be more rooted in Floridian
death metal (Massacre, Nocturnus, Death). Do you think there are too few bands
playing the Floridian style of death metal?

Sten: Yes,
But I think that’s also the reason why we are so different form other Old
school Death Metal bands. You have a few
Florida style Death metal bands out there like Skeletal Remains, Morfin and
Gruesome. The reason we play it is because we love bands like Death/Massacre
and Obituary but we also try to involve some of our own ideas.

SFM: Any last words for the fans out there?

Sten: We Love you all! Thanks for the support
and stay tuned for the new album!